Irritated, she scowled. “I didn’tcaveto anything. My daughter’s father wants extra time with his daughter I’m happy to give, because it lets me spend extra time with my boyfriend. Everyone’s happy.”
“Okay, yes. I’m sorry.” He groaned and pulled her close for a hug. “I’m sorry.”
“Reggie, I love you. I’m not Amy. And you’re not Stephen.”
He pulled back and frowned. “I know I’m not him. You don’t have to rub it in.”
“What are you talking about?” She had no idea where all this weirdness was coming from. “Stephen is the man I divorced. I don’t want Stephen. I want you.”
“Hell. I’m acting like an idiot. Sorry, Maggie.”
Seeing this side of Reggie gave Maggie a fuller picture of him. On the one hand, she liked knowing he wasn’t perfect. No one was, but up until this point, he hadn’t put a foot wrong. His baseless jealousy made little sense, but at least he owned the feeling. Something Stephen had never done.
“Do you think we can start our weekend over?” he asked.
“I think you’ll have to grovel.”
His slow smile melted her reserve. “I can do that. And I promise all the foreplay your heart can handle tonight. I swear.”
“Well then. Okay.”
“Just one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“I have something I need to do tomorrow. And I’d like you to come. After brunch with my family, I mean.”
She smiled. “That I can do.”
***
Sunday afternoon, surrounded by puppies and kittens at a pet adoption north of Fremont, Maggie helped volunteer while Reggie, Brad, Tex, and Mack wore Pets Fur Life T-shirts and flirted—ahem,talked—with people interested in adopting animals.
The area in West Woodland Park was crowded with children playing sports, people walking, and the sectioned-off area that Pets Fur Life had chosen to host an adoption. Several small, wire pens contained animals needing good homes. And Maggie, with only one arm to use, had been stationed with the kittens.
Watching Reggie smile and talk to others, she saw his natural charisma in effect. She loved looking at him. She only wished half the other women wandering by would stop cozying up to him with “questions.”Please. It’s an animal. It has fur and whiskers. Now move along.
Mack sidled up to her. “Hey there, Magnificent Maggie.”
“Hello to you, Magnificent Mack.”
A woman stood a little too close to Reggie and, laughing, put her hand on his arm. So obvious. But Maggie’sboyfriendjust smiled back and kept talking.
“Yeah, Reggie’s great at these things. But he’s clueless, so cut him some slack.”
“Clueless?” She handed a kitten to a lady asking to see one.
She and Mack watched the lady and her two children play with the little fellow.
“Reggie’s too nice,” Mack said. “Not to guys, but to women. Amy used to play him like a fiddle.”
“Really?”
“Reggie’s decent. Has a heart bigger than anyone I know,” Mack admitted. “But he never saw her working him. To him, she was sad and nice and needed a hand. But we saw right through her. She used him until she didn’t need him anymore. And the big dope still thinks she was sweet but naive.” Mack sneered. “Naive my”—he watched the children playing with the kitten and finished with—“butt.”
An interesting perspective. But was it true? “I don’t know, Mack. Reggie told me you guys didn’t like her, but that she was just shy.”
“Maybe that’s what he thinks, but I swear she made a move on Brad. It was subtle, but I saw it.”
